IRS Update about Economic Stimulus Package
Posted by Carolyn Spohrer at 9:43 AM Press Releases
The IRS estimates that there are approximately 23.5 million taxpayers that may need to file a return who would otherwise not be required to file. The IRS will me mailing motices to these potential Stimulus Filers during the month of March.
There is a plan date of April 1st to begin accepting the Stimulus Return electronically, provided that the IRS can figure a non-invasive method to accept them. This means that as of now, there is NO acceptable method for electronically filing these returns. TaxWise will continue to display a diagnostic error for returns that fall into this category. There is no reason to flood the IRS with returns that are going to get IRS rejected.
We have seen some customers add a $ amount to Taxable Interest of Line 21 to force the return to pass diagnostics. We strongly encourage you to advise your offices to NOT do this. At this point, we do not know if this will help or hurt the taxpayer. The IRS does not currently have any way of identifying the return as being filed solely for the purpose of receiving a stimulus check.
The IRS will be communicating regularly with the software developers in an effort to find the best and most efficient way to service this group of taxpayers. If you have to a taxpayer that cannot wait, your only course of action is to follow the IRS guidelines currently posted on IRS.gov and do a “paper” 1040A return with the words Stimulus written across the top of it.
Returns electronically filed with a bank product or with a Split Refund (Form 8888) will not be eligible for Direct Deposit. They will receive a paper check mailed to the address that was on the Main Info at the time the return was electronically filed.
The first wave of direct deposits will be released beginning the week of May 2nd. The IRS will be posting a release schedule of these payments. It will be based on the last four digits of a recipients SSN.